BOSI Contemporary presents Republika a solo exhibition by Serbia born performance artist Marta Jovanović. The exhibition will feature selected works created in the past four years and presented for the first time in the U.S. The show will be honoring Jovanović’s artist’s book “Performing the Self” written by Kathy Battista which will be launched in a special event and panel discussion at the gallery.

In her performances, videos, photographs, and installations Jovanović interrogates identity, beauty, and sexuality while revealing a personal history that embarks on her roots and memories. Appropriating the instantly recognizable characteristics of fashion mediums and art trends, the works expose the limitations of the traditional canon of beauty while drawing attention to the fluidity of gender. Curator and author Kathy Battista writes: “She is interested in the legacy of feminism, but she also has deep admiration for her male forebears. Are these contradictory stances? They should not be. For identity today is a shifting and transforming process, rather than a fixed state.”

Taking upon herself various guises such as an enthusiastic Yugoslavian pioneer in “Pionirka” or as an alter ego of the famous poet Gabriele D’Annunzio in “Sèlysette”, Jovanović takes risks in performing a complex existence. Jovanović’s works are an invitation to disregard conventional notions of aesthetics and embrace a democratic vision of representation, free from all constraints.